


The little Time Traveler

by DrBlueneck



Category: Naruto
Genre: Crackish at times, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Growing Up, No Beta: we die like Spartans, Time Travel, Uzumaki Naruto-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:06:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28778007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrBlueneck/pseuds/DrBlueneck
Summary: Naruto has been a time traveler his whole life. It just took him years to realize it.
Relationships: Uchiha Obito & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 54
Kudos: 129





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is going to be a short one, with short chapters and time-lapses. Expect no romance, no drama, no fix-it, just Naruto hopping through time and trying to make sense of his life.

The first time it happened, the four-year-old boy just tripped on his own two feet. One second he was in a backstreet, waving his arms around trying to regain his balance, the next he was in the main avenue of the village, spitting out a mouthful of dirt as he stood back up, knees bleeding from the hard impact with the ground.

The blond kid just looked around him, confused, before shrugging it off and going about his day, shoulders hunched around his head and shooting suspicious glares at the villagers who had yet to show distaste at his presence.

He ended up relaxing, mingling with the crowd and bumping into people just to see their reaction. Some scoffed and told him to look where he went, others sighed with indulgence, and a small number even laughed and apologized. It was surreal. Feeling daring, he even bought an apple from the old woman who usually pretended he didn't exist. It was a good day, Naruto decided.

Then he tripped on a stone, his nose met the ground, and when he looked up, he was still in the main avenue, but there was a wide breadth around him. His sharp ears caught a mumbled sneer, "little freak, always gets in the way" and he turned around, stuck his tongue out and bellowed an insult that went along the lines of "poop face" before storming away from the market place.

So much for having a good day.

The next time was similar. He walked, tripped, and when he got back up, people were nicer – or at least didn’t mind his existence. Naruto happily went along with the weird fluke, thinking that adults were odd creatures with strange rites.

He decided to fall more often just to escape the stares.

It never worked.

He tried buying an apple from the woman. Her face kept changing from one day to the next. Naruto wondered if it was a cool jutsu. He asked the Old Man (he was the only adult worth knowing, and with him came money and sometimes ramen and sometimes even a _pat on the head_ and it was just—) and he laughed, the thin skin around his eyes crinkling with mirth. "No, no, my boy. This is just a trick from life. No one escapes the mark left by the passing of time."

Naruto didn’t get one word from that speech and shrugged, placing that under the “mysteries of life” mental checklist he kept.

Still. The lady kept changing faces. One day wrinkled. One day smooth.

He quickly learned to which face he could buy his apples.

Stingy old hag. Adults were weird.

He met a boy one day. The villagers kept shouting at him, scoffing at his excuses and muttering about no good orphans causing trouble.

Naruto kept his distance – it was a “good” day, the villagers left him alone and he got his apples plus a full bag of lemons, which was a real treat as the yellow fruit was a rarity in Konoha and always sold out fast. He definitely didn’t need to attract bad attention by associating with the other troublemaker.

Nodding wisely at his decision, the blond boy munched on his green apple, enjoying the sweet-acid juice and thinking about the lemonade he’d make when he got home. Not a second later, the other boy bumped into him and his lemons spilled onto the ground.

“WAAAA!!! SORRY!!!! I DIDN’T SEE YOU!”

Almost jumping out of his skin at the screamed apologies, Naruto just stared with wide eyes and apple-filled-cheeks as the boy grew teary-eyed the longer he apologized and bowed to him.

He _bowed._

Nobody ever apologized to Naruto or _bowed_ or even _talked_ really. They just ignored him.

Blinking owlishly, the blond boy mumbled “it'sh okay” through the crushed apple bits he had yet to swallow in his surprise.

Immediately, the other kid beamed at him and Naruto felt his eyes prickle.

Someone was _talking_ to him and _smiling_. Just for him.

“I’m Obito, by the way! I never saw you around before.”

Sniffing back the snot that wanted to trickle down his nose, the four-year-old roughly scrubbed his eyes and tried to introduce himself after swallowing his mouthful. He took a step forward, a smile tugging at his lips, “I’m Uzu–” and promptly met the floor, right foot rolling on a forgotten lemon.

When he got up, rubbing at his smarting skull, there were no more lemons and the brown-haired kid was long gone.

There was a burning feeling in his eyes and he sniffled before slapping his cheeks.

He won’t cry. It didn’t hurt at all.


	2. Chapter 2

“AH! YUZU!!”

The yell came from behind him and before he could react, a boy was draped over his back, talking a mile a minute about how he missed him and where did he go and he forgot his lemons and was it a shunshin and it was so cool he should teach him and—“What did you call me?” Naruto asked, confused. Surely Obito mistook him for someone else. No one missed Naruto Uzumaki, ever.

Obito looked sheepish as he scratched the back of his neck.

“Sorry, you were gone so fast I didn’t quite catch your name. Then I saw the lemons and 'yuzu' just stuck.“

Yuzu. Huh.

Maybe it was better than telling his name. People always seemed horrified when he told them who he was. It was like a curse.

But Yuzu…

"I like it,” he decided, and Obito smiled proudly.

They spent the rest of the day together, running up and down the streets, echoes of shrieking laughter the only sign of their passage.

It was a really good day.

So Naruto quickly understood that there were two Konoha. There was the one that recoiled at his name, and there was the one that didn’t care about him. There was the one where he was known as Naruto Uzumaki and the one where he was simply Yuzu.

To his young mind, it was just the normal order of things. Everyone had bad days and good days. Everyone experienced cold Konoha and warm Konoha. People changed moods, changed faces, some streets even disappeared, but Naruto guessed it was normal in a ninja village – once you witnessed a shinobi breathing _fire_ nothing seemed strange anymore.

All in all, he only wished that he could have more good days than bad days.

And if sometimes at night he’d close his eyes and wish really hard to be Yuzu, just Yuzu… well nobody had to know, right?

He didn’t realize he was so dependent on Good Days until he met with the Old Man one morning and had to clear his voice twice before talking. Nowadays, the only one he spoke with was Obito, and it’d been a month since they last met. He tried searching for the older boy, but he didn’t know his last name, nor did he know where he lived. Naruto would never say it, but he often wondered if he was just “touched in the head” like he heard people say with sympathy about the old Taka-san who lived down the street. He wondered if Obito was even real; if the Good Days even existed.

“Old Man… you’re real, right?” He asked as he looked up at the only person who seemed to care about Naruto Uzumaki.

They were walking down a worn-out path in the forest where they first met. The Old Man had promised they’d fish.

He seemed surprised by the question but took it in stride as he pondered his answer, a large, wrinkled hand coming to pat his head.

“I’m as real as you are,” he settled for as he offered his hand. Naruto quickly grasped it, sticky fingers squeezing around calloused flesh. The Old Man squeezed back, tight enough that Naruto could almost feel his bones grinding together as he gasped in shock. “See? No illusion. Now come, I think this spot will be nice for fishing.”

They sat and fished and Naruto kept quiet, unsure if he was happy or sad that this Konoha was the real one.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First time-lapse! Naruto is around 7, now, and so has been hopping through time and meeting with Obito for about 3 years. They haven't met that much, only for a few hours every time Naruto managed to accidentally time travel - which is not a lot!

He started the Academy and things were _good_. He was learning about being a ninja! He hadn’t seen Obito in months, and the stingy old hag hadn’t sold him apples in months too, but it was okay, the Academy kept him busy enough to forget about his friend. Maybe the other kid was a civilian and that’s why he hadn’t seen him at school. He never asked him. Perhaps the next time their paths cross, Naruto could tell him all about the Academy and make him join? Or was it too late for Obito who was two years older than him?

It was a bit lonely at the Academy. Naruto didn’t make any new friends, but it’s not like he had been trying, to be honest. He spent much of his time trying to understand the given homework or planning a prank on some mean villager. It had nothing to do with the fact that most kids just ignored him to begin with. He didn’t care one bit! So what if the blond-haired girl in his class was always with the pink-haired one and seemed to know all the other kids but him? She clearly didn’t see that Naruto was awesome, and that was her problem, not his.

With that thought in mind, he jumped over a puddle of mud and landed right into another. He blinked, confused. Either his aim was crap or he hadn’t noticed the other puddle.

The blond boy shrugged, looked at his stained clothes, and after a moment of reflection, decided to jump again in the puddle to see how far the splashes went. Now that his clothes were ruined, no need to be careful!

He was so absorbed by his silly game that he didn’t see nor hear anyone coming.

“Yuzu?!”

At that, the boy looked up, startled. Oh, he thought, this is a Good Day then.

A smile quickly grew on his lips, genuine joy spreading in his little body as Obito ran towards him. There was a forehead protector tied above his protective glasses and Naruto shouted with delight and awe. “You’re a ninja!”

Obito grinned widely and adjusted the spotless headband before gasping dramatically like he remembered something, eyes going wide as he reached for the blond boy’s shoulders and violently shook him. “ Yuzuuuu! Where have you been?! It's been almost half a year since I last saw you, I was worried ya know… I thought you had died…” His voice tapered off as he sniffled, and he quickly pushed his glasses up and rubbed at his eyes, one hand still clutched tightly around Yuzu's collar.

Naruto blinked, startled. He tilted his head to one side, then the other, as if trying to understand a complicated math problem. “Are you cryin’?”

“NO!” Obito said as he snatched a bottle from his pouch and dripped some liquid in his eyes. “There was dust or somethin’ in my eyes… that’s all! Uchiha don’t cry.” The last sentence was recited with so much conviction that Naruto didn’t have the heart to point out that the boy still had snot dangling from his nose from his dramatic crying feat, nor the fact that he had glasses that should’ve kept the dust away. Instead, he went with sympathy. “Once I squeezed a lemon so hard I got juice in my eyes,” he confided, pursing his lips in remembrance.

That got a snicker out of Obito who patted the younger boy on the back, still sniffling a little. “I missed you Yuzu, I’m glad I finally found you again. You always disappear for months and months without telling me anything... Don't make me worry like that!"

At a loss for words, Naruto shrugged, uncomfortable in his skin. "Sorry," he mumbled. Then he brightened, brandishing a fist. "Do you go on missions now that you're a ninja? Have you saved a princess and fought Samurais?"

A sly grin stretched Obito's lips as he rubbed his hands together. "Oh, Yuzu, I have so much to tell you!"

And Naruto listened in awe, eyes twinkling with stars, to Obito's exaggerated stories of slaying dragons and gaining the Daimyo's favors and even getting his daughter to fall in love with him.

He, too, hoped he'd be a mighty shinobi one day, just like his friend.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when last chapter I said Naruto was 8? Scratch that, I meant 7! It has been edited :)  
> New time-lapse in this chapter, our boy is growing up!

The Uchiha all died last night. The only one left in the village was a boy in his class he never talked to, and Naruto wanted to cry.

Obito was an Uchiha, and Obito was not the boy from his class; _Sasuke_ was.

And so, _Obito was dead_.

When the Uchiha boy finally came back to school, eyes swollen and red as he sat stiffly at a table, Naruto glared at him and bared his teeth. The boy frowned and sneered before looking away, hiding his face in his high collar. It wasn’t fair, the blond boy wanted to tell him. It wasn’t fair that he got to live but not his friend. It wasn’t fair that he would be once again all alone.

It wasn’t fair at all.

Obito had been dead for ten months, and Naruto’s Good Days had yet to pick up since. He idly wondered if it had really just been a dream after all. With all that time spent alone, Naruto had done a lot of thinking.

Was he sad that Obito died? Yes.

But was he sad because he had liked the boy or because it meant he was now truly on his own?

Obito had been dead for ten months, and Naruto was still too much of a coward to answer this question.

It was during a Taijutsu match, two years after the massacre nobody talked about, that _it_ happened again.

Naruto had just been punched in the jaw by Sasuke and was sent rolling to the ground. Sensei called the match despite the blond boy’s yells. “I can still fight!”

Nobody paid him attention, getting ready for the next match, and Naruto snarled as he lunged himself at the Uchiha’s back. The next thing he knew, his face met a tree trunk and he slid to the ground, clutching at his forehead.

“…the hell!” he whined as he glanced around him. He was still on the Academy grounds, that was for sure, but his class was not there anymore and it looked like the Academy was closed for the day.

The blond boy squinted and slowly got up to his feet, stomach coiled unpleasantly. Surely it couldn’t be… Hope rising like a flame being fanned, Naruto dashed out of the Academy’s training grounds and followed the path leading to the city center. He ran as fast as his legs would go, and only came to a stop when he reached the stand selling green and red apples. Out of breath, panting like a dog, the boy stepped forward, hands clutched into his t-shirt, and yelled, “Hello!” to the young woman manning the front. She was slightly older than what he was used to but also still younger than what he was used to. It was confusing.

She startled at the loud greeting before offering a bemused smile. “Hello to you too! Here for some apples?”

Naruto bit his lip, nodded ‘yes’, paid for his one, neon-green apple with the spare change sitting at the bottom of his pocket, and hurriedly walked away, heading straight for the forest within the village's borders that he knew like the back of his hand. Apple cradled between his sweaty palms and held tight to his chest, Naruto walked and walked until he couldn’t hear the sounds of the village anymore.

Only then did he stop, crouching on the mossy soil as his knees tremble. Head bowed down and apple held tight, Naruto cried, ugly sobs tearing out of his throat as snot dripped from his nose.

He was _back_.

He was finally back to the _good_ Konoha, to the _good days_.

And Naruto wished to never leave.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just FYI, in this fic, time doesn't work in a linear way when Naruto time travels: if he stays a few days in the past, only a few hours would've passed in the present :)

Yuzu was living the Good Life. True, he didn’t have a house to go back to, nor did he have money to buy food, but the Academy had taught him to survive in the woods, and the forest surrounding Konoha had been his playground since… well, forever, really!

He had become quite good at fishing and hunting down small games in the three days he'd been there. Sometimes, he would go to the center of the village, where the market place was, and he would exchange some of his catches for juicy fruits or ripe vegetables. Nobody told him to get out of the way, nobody turned their eyes away when he watched them, nobody ignored him when he asked for things. It was strange, and everything he had ever wanted. Each night, Yuzu would squeeze his eyes shut and pray that it never stopped, afraid that he’d wake up in the morning in his dingy old apartment with an empty fridge and even emptier life. And when the morning came and instead of an off-white ceiling he’d be met with evergreen leaves, Yuzu would grin so hard his cheeks hurt.

So far, he hadn’t met anyone new. Perhaps it was better this way though… the wound of Obito's death had scabbed over long ago, but he was still not ready to go out there and make new friends, too afraid of being hurt once more. He had learned that being alone sucked, but losing a friend was like losing a limb, and the pain never really went away for good.

Walking along a marked path in the forest, Yuzu played with a stick, beating at the grass that grew too tall on some patches. He hummed a little song under his breath, listening to the sounds of little critters scuttling around in the trees and the bushes. The sun was high in the sky, noon had just passed and hunger was starting to make itself known to his young stomach. Thinking about the money the Not Old apple lady gave him for his squirrel, the blond boy turned on his heels, ready to go back to the village and treat himself to some dango. Mouth already watering, the boy quickened his steps, almost skipping.

“Well someone is happy, I see!”

Yuzu almost tripped on his feet as he squealed before remembering that he was a ninja in training (even though he hadn’t been to the Academy since he came to the Good Konoha) and trying to get into a fighting stance. That got him a laugh that came from somewhere up in the trees, and Yuzu bristled.

Oh.

He had forgotten what it was like being made fun of.

“H-hey! There’s nothing funny, believe it!” he yelled, red creeping up his cheeks as he tried to tuck his chin in the collar of his shirt. He should’ve taken his jacket with him instead of letting it dry after washing it. It would’ve given him more space to hide.

“Sorry, sorry!”

The leaves just above Yuzu rustled and someone dropped down in front of him. Hands ruffled dark brown hair before readjusting a pair of orange-tinted goggles. Yuzu dropped out of his fighting stance, mouth agape.

“Man, I've been looking for you _everywhere_! You really have a knack for disappearing, Yuzu... What _have_ you been up to, huh? Can't believe you ditched me for so long,” the boy said in a pout.

But Yuzu wasn't listening and took a step back, no sound coming from his trembling lips. That was not possible. That really was not possible, right? He swallowed around a lump in his throat and pointed an accusing finger at the other boy.

“But you… You’re dead!”

A second passed in utter silence, Obito’s eyes growing larger and larger as he lost all colors. Then the boy gasped and started screaming his head off. “HUH?! REALLY? DOES IT MEAN I’M A GHOST! WAAAAH!!!” Fat tears were flowing out of his eyes as he tugged at his hair. “I CAN’T BE A GHOST! I’M AFRAID OF GHOSTS! YUZU!! WHAT DO I DO?!”

“I don’t know!” Yuzu screamed back, still backing off. “Your whole family is dead!”

“WHAAAAAAT?”

Obito tried to reach for Yuzu but the blond boy yelled in fright and tried to keep him away with his stick. “Begone! Begone!”

Eventually, Obito managed to wrap his hands around one of Yuzu’s arms and clung to him, snot dribbling from his nose. “NOOOO! Yuzu!! Don’t banish me away, I don't know how to come back from the Pure Land!”

The two boys were both screaming so loudly at each other that neither registered the three sets of hurried feet rushing towards them and skidding to a halt when they reached the scene.

“Obito,” came a bewildered voice loud enough to talk over the screams, “what are you _doing_?”

Still clinging to Yuzu, the brown-haired boy turned his head towards the voice and let out a loud sob before screeching, “SENSEEEIIII!” The rest of his sentence was completely garbled by his hysteric sobs as well as Yuzu’s continued screams to “Get off! Get off! Get off!”

It took a few minutes to calm down both boys who squirmed under the judgmental eyes of Team 7 once it was established that _no_ , Obito wasn’t dead, and _no_ , the Uchiha weren’t dead either.

The whole time, Yuzu wondered with growing dread if he was crazy.

Two hours later, after being lectured sternly by Obito’s sensei about bad jokes, Yuzu promised to meet up for a snack with Obito and his team (“You’ll finally meet them properly! You pulled a vanishing act last time when I wanted to introduce you – that was _so_ rude by the way!”). On his way to the tea place they chose for their get together, Yuzu tripped on a root.

Grumbling about having to wash his clothes again, he stood up, confused.

The sun had gone away and the moon had taken its place. Instead of the well-known part of the forest he’d been living in, he was standing in a training field not far from the Academy grounds.

Ah.

He was back.

Naruto closed his eyes and gnashed his teeth to keep from screaming in anger. Fists clenched tightly in his shirt and throat bobbing up and down, he finally lost the battle and in a yell that got lost in the night, the blond pariah boy of Konoha cried at the unfairness of the world.


	6. Chapter 6

One day, as he was running around the village to shake the Chunin chasing him off his trail, Naruto ended up near Training Field 3 where a newly minted Genin team was being beaten up by a Jounin who showed no pity. It was an amusing sight that made Naruto snicker as he slowed down to watch the show. But the Jounin caught him staring and glared at Naruto who stuck out his tongue and pulled one eyelid with his middle finger before jogging away. He didn’t go too far, hiding under some bushes as he knew the Chunin were unlikely to come and stomp all over the field to find him when it was being used by a Jounin. He lied on his belly, making himself at home on the damp soil, idly playing with some pebbles and pulling at tufts of grass, Naruto listened to the Jounin berating the kids who apparently had just failed some sort of test.

The boy didn’t give it much attention as the man dramatically started to drone on and on about duty and scum and dying on the field. Naruto stifled a yawn into his elbow. It was even more boring than when Iruka-sensei talked about history. It took him a moment to notice that the Jounin had stopped talking, and so he chanced a glance at the field to see if the coast was clear and grinned when he saw no one. He shimmied from under his hiding place, rubbed his dirty hands together in an attempt to clean them a bit, and started walking back to the middle of the empty training field, whistling happily as he thought about his next prank.

“You really need to work on your subtlety, kid.”

Naruto froze on his tracks, choking on his spit. The weird Jounin was crouched in front of a stone, not even bothering to look at him. It was well-hidden from sight if one wasn’t looking specifically for it. Hesitantly, Naruto took a step, then two, and when the Jounin said nothing, he slowly crept his way towards him but kept away from grabbing distance. Peering at the stone, he frowned.

“What’s that?”

He wasn’t really expecting an answer, just thought out loud (it was a good way to make sure his voice didn’t get rusty as no one ever wanted to willingly engage in a discussion with him), and thus was surprised when the man pointed at the stone and explained, “It’s a memorial. For all the shinobi who gave their lives for the village.”

At that, Naruto immediately lost all interest in the stone. “Oh. Okay.”

Still, he stared at the stone, reading the names out of curiosity (maybe some of his classmates’ relatives were on it? Maybe… his _own_ relatives were on it?) and gasped when one caught his attention. He pointed accusingly at the stone. “Ha! I knew it! I knew it, I knew it, _I knew it_!”

The Jounin stared at him unblinkingly, and despite his mask and hitai-ate covering most of his face, Naruto could still guess the confusion etched on it.

“He’s _dead_!” he said, waving his hands around. “And then his team told me he _wasn’t_! But he _is_ , I’ve got proof now!” And then he gasped again, bringing his hands to his cheeks in horror. “Perhaps they’re all ghosts and they just don’t know it…” That realization made the boy pale as he trembled in fear. “Oh no, my friend is a ghost and he’s gonna haunt me…!”

No, no, no. Naruto couldn’t let that happen. He’ll need to find a way for Obito and his teammates to rest in peace so they wouldn’t haunt him or eat him or whatever it was ghosts did. He’ll ask the Old Man. He knew everything, surely he’d know how to get rid of ghosts, right? Right! Determined, Naruto turned away from the stone and ran towards the Tower, not even trying to escape his Chunin stalkers this time around as they would get him straight to the man he sought anyway.

Left alone at the memorial, Kakashi blinked once, then twice, and huffed a sigh.

“Maa, sensei, your son is a weird little enigma…”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto is currently 10 :)

The next time Naruto saw Obito, he had just been punched in the face by Sasuke after he grumpily asked him to tell his dead family to “stop stalking me, dammit, I hate ghosts!”. It had been ill-received, apparently. Tsk, so rude, see if Naruto was _ever_ going to relay any messages from the beyond to that dumbass. Jaw still a bit tender, he stared for long seconds at the very much alive Uchiha kid and his teammates, who were in the middle of their lunch break and who were staring right back at him with furrowed brows or bulging eyes.

“How did you do that?!” Obito yelled, pointing at the whole of the blond boy who just started slapping his cheeks, mumbling something about craziness and ghosts and the Academy.

The man who was their sensei scrutinized him, thoughtful. “I didn’t sense any chakra surge, surely that couldn’t have been a shunshin, right? How peculiar...”

And then the kid just looked at them, screamed, “You’re all dead!” and ran away blindly, never seeing the training post on his path as he slammed into it and disappeared, leaving behind him flabbergasted spectators.

“OH MY GOD WHERE DID YUZU GO?!”

It happened two more times before he managed to sit down with Obito’s team and learn their names. They kept asking him questions about his last disappearances (“You just _poofed_ away without using chakra, what technique is that?! Is it a secret clan technique or something? C’mon, tell me!” – “I don’t know what you’re talking about, _you_ ’re the ones who always disappear! It’s scary!!”) but gave up when they got nothing logical out of the boy.

When he got back to the Bad Konoha, Naruto sat down and thought for a long time before going to the public archives where he spent the whole day trying to fish out some information about Obito, but almost everything concerning the Uchiha clan was classified and he never got the surnames of Kakashi, Rin, or that Minato-sensei of theirs. So he waited for the end of a school day to go and ask Iruka-sensei directly. Surely the man would know about former Academy students. He won’t ask about Obito – people kept saying the Uchiha were all dead, but sometimes they _weren’t_ , and it was _confusing_. But he would bet his whole stash of cup ramen that Iruka-sensei would know about Kakashi – the other boy was always holding himself like an arrogant twat, and Naruto knew from experience that this type of people were used to being the best at everything. _Bleh_. Forget the ramen, Naruto would bet his right arm that Kakashi had been the _Rookie of the year_.

Vibrating on his seat, waiting for the classroom to empty, Naruto almost jumped on his unsuspecting teacher to ask him his question.

“Sensei, d’you know a Kakashi or somethin’?”

And like a switch being flicked, Iruka-sensei narrowed his eyes, suspicious. “Why are you asking, Naruto-kun?” Then he crossed his arms and began tapping his foot on the floor. “It better not be a prank! Did you do something to Hatake-san?”

Hatake, huh? Naruto grinned widely. “Nope, nothin’, thanks sensei, bye!” and the kid ran out of the classroom, refusing to slow down as Iruka tried to call him back.

When he got to the archives the next day, he found out that Kakashi Hatake was still very much alive at 24, a fearsome Jounin, and the sole surviving member of Team 7. He was also the weird Jounin that kept looking at a stone with tired, lonely eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

Yuzu was munching happily on an apple, perched on the low branch of a tree overseeing Training Field 3. It had been deserted the whole day and the boy had taken the opportunity to just lounge around, happy to have landed on Good Konoha on the day of his history test on the last Shinobi War. He had chucked off his sweater and jacket upon his arrival, surprised to find that this Konoha was still in the throes of summer whereas this morning, snow had been falling. He had given up on trying to understand what was happening around him, why the world kept changing while he was caught in the eye of the storm, feeling unbalanced. Perhaps he really was crazy. Pah! Who cared, he'd live his life to the fullest. At least it was nice, and Obito got to live instead of being dead with the rest of the Uchiha clan and Team 7.

As if summoned by his thoughts, the boy and his team were trekking their way up to the field, their voices still too far to understand what was being said but close enough for the light wind to carry them around. Their sensei knew almost instantly that Yuzu was here and waved at him as they walked under his tree. Yuzu grinned and waved back, lying on his stomach across the branch to better see Team 7. It was nice to be acknowledged.

"How are you doing, Yuzu-kun?"

"Fine," the boy smiled, crunching on his apple before adding, almost as an afterthought, "Ya know, you're dead."

The sensei smiled awkwardly and Kakashi frowned. "You're lucky you're not a shinobi, this could be taken as treason to threaten your allies with death."

"It's the truth, though! You're dead," he said as he pointed at the blond man, "and you're dead," he then pointed at the girl, "and you're dead too!" He finished as he pointed at Obito, wincing at his friend's dramatic wail. Then he pointed at Kakashi, tilted his head from one side to the other as if trying to solve a puzzle. "And you're a boring weird old man. Bleh!"

This got a laugh out of Obito. "That's 'cause of your grey mane, haha, look at that!" He tried to poke at Kakashi's hair only for his teammate to twist his arm around. "Ow, ow, ow! Senseiiii, help!"

"Tch, useless," the other boy said before releasing him with a push that landed Obito on all fours. He then turned his attention back to Yuzu. "And you, get out of here. We booked this training field, no one is allowed in the vicinity while shinobi are using it."

Yuzu pouted. "I _really_ prefer you when you're an old fart…"

"Aah, Yuzu-kun—" the sensei tried, only to be cut off by Kakashi, "We don't have time to play around with useless civilians. We're at war and need to train, so get off our training ground and go be a nuisance elsewhere."

"Oi, Bakashi! Don't talk to him like that!"

The teenager glared at his teammate. "You can go ahead and be a nuisance elsewhere too."

"Okay, enough," Minato-sensei said sternly. "Yuzu-kun, we're always happy to talk with you, but Kakashi-kun is right, we have to train and civilians aren't allowed nearby. Kakashi-kun, we already talked about this: mind your words."

Silence stretched between the boys and Yuzu climbed down the tree, refusing the man's help. Once his feet were back on the ground, he looked at the whole of Team 7 with furrowed brows. Then he shook his head and ran away, waving goodbye at Obito.

War, Yuzu thought. 'We're at war,' Kakashi had said.

But…

The boy stopped running, catching his breath. He looked around, at the marketplace that lacked the newest stalls installed a few months ago, at the Tower that was a dull red instead of a vibrant one, and finally, at the mountain overlooking the village. He was so used to it that he never took the time to stare at it anymore because he knew exactly what he would find: four stern faces of the former leaders, a symbol of strength and lasting peace. But now that he looked, he could only see three faces.

'We're at war,' Kakashi had said.

But it wasn't true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! The realization that NOPE, he's not crazy, and something is hella wrong! Next one will be from Obito's POV!


	9. Chapter 9

“You shouldn’t go, ya know,” was the first thing Yuzu told him the next time Obito found him and told him about the Kannabi Bridge (he shouldn’t, it was classified information, and if it was known that Obito opened his big fat mouth and talked about such a vital mission to a civilian…). The blond boy wouldn’t even look at him, knees held tight against his chest and eyes riveted to a tuft of grass poking between his sandaled feet.

Obito had been looking for him. He had wanted to teach his young friend some moves before going away, just in case some enemy shinobi managed to breach the village’s security. War was no joke, he had learned in his last missions. Every time he came back from one of them, he’d wonder if the next one would be the one to kill him.

“Why are you saying that? Don’t trust in my great ninja skills anymore?” he teased the boy, crouching down in front of him and trying to meet his eyes.

But Yuzu kept his gaze firmly on his feet. He seemed downcast, as if the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders, trying to hide behind his fringe. He had taken to wear goggles recently, similar to the ones Obito was wearing, but today, Yuzu had forgone them. A pity, Obito thought. He liked having someone trying to emulate him. It made him feel important – competent – _cherished_.

“I just think you shouldn’t go… you’ll die on your next mission, believe it…”

“Oh, wow, way to make me feel confident, shrimp! I thought we were done with the death omens.”

Silence.

“Yuzu?”

A sigh, and the boy finally looked up with red-rimmed eyes. “You’ll die, and then nothing will ever be the same anymore. Don’t go, Obito.”

It was Obito’s turn to sigh as he finally sat down properly, tearing at some grass blades. “Yuzu… I knew what I was getting into when I became a shinobi. I’m no coward. If I die while serving my village and protecting my precious people… then, it’s a good death, I’d say.”

Leaning towards the younger boy, he ruffled his blond hair with gusto, only letting go when Yuzu tried to bat his hand away. “Now stop worrying about me! I’m strong, I’m not gonna die on this stupid mission! C’mon, get up, I wanted to show you how to throw a good punch before I need to go.”

“I know how to punch,” Yuzu mumbled.

“Yes, but do you know how to punch someone’s kneecap so hard that you break their leg?”

And that definitely got the boy’s attention, even though he still kept his maudlin mood. It was okay though, Obito will come back, and Yuzu will see that there was no need to worry.

And Obito Uchiha was no liar.

It happened just like Naruto knew it would. Despite what his classmates and teachers said, he wasn’t dumb. He eventually understood that he walked in between two worlds, two times, two lives. The day after his last encounter with Obito, Naruto tried and tried and _tried_ to go back to the Good place (but was it still Good if it was just a past reflection of his own Konoha? Was it still Good if Obito died?). He jumped, fell down, ran into trees and walls… nothing worked.

Forehead still plastered to the ground after another fall, Naruto lifted his head just enough to hit it against the ground, again and again. “Come on… come on… come on, you dummy, come on…”

But he never managed to jump back to the past Konoha, never managed to go back to Obito and try harder to stop him, or follow him on his mission.

He never managed anything.

And when he looked up at the memorial stone, forehead still bleeding from his latest attempt, Obito’s name was still etched on it.

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language, sorry for the mistakes you might find while reading!  
> Feel free to drop a word on your way out, I love to chat with readers about their theories, and I feel that this peculiar Time Travel could bring a lot of plot twists if we bounce ideas off each other!


End file.
